Mar 26 2007
Finished Felted Knit bag and purse
Felted Knit bag and purse, started January 17th, 2007, finished March 26th, 2007
Pattern: Designed By Me - more below the cut
Yarn: Cascade 220
Needles: 15s for bag, 13s for straps
Dimensions: really big
Pattern Notes: I used short rows on the front pouch which worked really well for creating a nice shape
Would I knit it again?: probably not - at least not until it wears out
I designed the pattern myself, I really wanted a knitting bag and purse all rolled together.
When felting, I tend to wing it a bit, and just get a good idea in my head of where I want to go, and then knit what looks and feels right. Most of the time it ends up pretty okay and felting/fulling is pretty forgiving. For this project I knew I would be knitting it over a long period of time, so I wanted something down on paper to remind me what I had in mind when I started. I decided to do double stranded knitting on really large needles (which isn’t how I usually do felted project) so I did swatch as a guide for the felting shrinkage rate.
I made a diagram (image below the cut) for what I wanted and then sort of did a lot of weird math to end up with my stitch amounts. I must have done the math fairly well (which is something noteable 
) the size turned out almost exactly what I had planned. I did over do it on the front pouch (the purse part) but that is because I psyched myself out worrying that it was too small and added increases that I hadn’t originally planned for. After it was felted and I saw how big the pocket was I borrowed a magnetic clasp from B. to put in to keep the pouch closed.
The Lid/flap thing looks a bit strange in the image, but when the bag is full it works beautifully. It needed to be narrow to go between the straps, but I wanted it wider to cover the purse part. Its a bit long and floppy if the bag is really empty - I am thinking of adding something with some weight to the end to make it a little less floppy, and maybe doing a little needle felting or yarn embroidery to give it some visual interest.
